Article by Rev. Professor William Henry Green

Bibliotheca Sacra 47 (April, 1890) 285-303.
Public Domain.

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 285

ARTICLE VII.
PRIMEVAL CHRONOLOGY.

BY THE REV. PROFESSOR WILLIAM HENRY GREEN, D. D.
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

THE question of the possible reconciliation of the results
of scientific inquiry respecting the antiquity of man and
the age of the world with the Scripture chronology has
been long and earnestly debated. On the one hand, sci-
entists, deeming them irreconcilable, have been led to
distrust the divine authority of the Scriptures; and, on
the other hand, believers in the divine word have been
led to look upon the investigations of science with an un-
friendly eye, as though they were antagonistic to religious
faith. In my reply to Bishop Colenso in 1863, 1 had occa-
sion to examine the method and structure of the biblical
genealogies, and incidentally ventured the remark 1 that
herein lay the solution of the whole matter. I said:
"There is an element of uncertainty in a computation of
time which rests upon genealogies, as the sacred chronol-
ogy so largely does. Who is to certify us that the ante-
diluvian and ante-Abrahamic genealogies have not been
condensed in the same manner as the post-Abrahamic?
.... Our current chronology is based upon the prima
facie impression of these genealogies. But if these
recently discovered indications of the antiquity of man,
over which scientific circles are now so excited, shall,
when carefully inspected and thoroughly weighed, demon-
strate all that any have imagined they might demonstrate,
what then? They will simply show that the popular

1 The Pentateuch Vindicated from the Aspersions of Bishop Colenso, p.
128 footnote.

April] Primeval Chronology. 286

chronology is based upon a wrong interpretation, and that,
a select and partial register of ante-Abrahamic names has
been mistaken for a complete one."

I here repeat, the discussion of the biblical genealogies
above referred to, and add some further considerations
which seem to me to justify the belief that the genealogies
in Genesis 5 and 11 were not intended to be used, and
cannot properly be used, for the construction of a
chronology.

It can scarcely be necessary to adduce proof to one who
has even a superficial acquaintance with the genealogies of
the Bible, that these are frequently abbreviated by the
omission of unimportant names. In fact, abridgment is the
general rule, induced by the indisposition of the sacred writers
to encumber their pages with more names than were necessary
for their immediate purpose. This is so constantly the case,
and the reason for it so obvious, that the occurrence of it need
create no surprise anywhere, and we are at liberty to suppose
it whenever anything in the circumstances of the case favors
that belief.

The omissions in the genealogy of our Lord as given in
Matthew 1 are familiar to all. Thus in verse 8 three names are
dropped between Joram and Ozias (Uzziah), viz., Ahaziah
(2 Kings 8:25), Joash (2 Kings 12:1), and Amaziah (2 Kings
14:1); and in verse 11 Jehoiakim is omitted after Josiah
(2 Kings 23:34; 1 Chron. 3:16); and in verse 1 the entire
genealogy is summed up in two steps, "Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham."

Other instances abound elsewhere; we mention only a few of
the most striking. In 1 Chronicles 26:24 we read in a list of
appointments made by King David (see 1 Chron. 24:3; 25:1;
26:26), that Shebuel, 1 the son of Gershom, the son of Moses,
was ruler of the treasures; and again in 1 Chronicles 23:15, 16,
we find it written, "The sons of Moses were Gershom and
Eliezer. Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief." Now
it is absurd to suppose that the author of Chronicles was so
grossly ignorant as to suppose that the grandson of Moses could

1 He is called in 1 Cron. 24:20 a son of Amram, the ancestor of Moses; for Shubael and
Shebuel are in all probability mere orthographic variations of the same name.

1890.]

Primeval Chronology.

287

be living in the reign of David, and appointed by him to a
responsible office. Again, in the same connection (1 Chron.
26:31), we read that "among the Hebronites was Jerijah the
chief;" and this Jerijah, or Jeriah (for the names are identical), was,
according to 23:19, the first of the sons of Hebron, and Hebron was (v. 12)
the son of Kohath, the son of Levi (v. 6). So that if no contraction in the
genealogical lists is allowed, we have the great-grandson of Levi holding a
prominent office in the reign of David.

The genealogy of Ezra is recorded in the book which bears his name; but
we learn from another passage, in which the same line of descent is given,
that it has been abridged by the omission of six consecutive names. This
will appear from the following comparison, viz.:

1 Chronicles 6:3-14

Ezra 7:1-5

1.

Aaron

Aaron

2.

Eleazar

Eleazar

3.

Phinehas

Phinehas

4.

Abishua

Abishua

5.

Bukki

Bukki

6.

Uzzi

Uzzi

7.

Zerahiah

Zerahiah

8.

Meraioth

Meraioth

9.

Amariah

10.

Ahitub

11.

Zadok

12.

Ahimaaz

13.

Azariah

14.

Johanan

15.

Azariah

Azariah

16.

Amariah

Amariah

17.

Ahitub

Ahitub

18.

Zadok

Zadok

19.

Shallum

Shallum

20.

Hilkiah

Hilkiah

21.

Azariah

Azariah

22.

Seraiah
Ezra

Seraiah

288 Primeval Chronology. [April,

Still further, Ezra relates (viii. 1, 2): ~
"These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is
the genealogy of them that went up with me from Baby-
lon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. Of the sons of
Phinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of
the sons of David, Hattush."

Here, if no abridgment of the genealogy is allowed,
we should have a great-grandson and a grandson of Aaron,
and a son of David coming up with Ezra from Babylon
after the captivity.

This disposition to abbreviate genealogies by the omis-
sion of whatever is unessential to the immediate purpose
of the writer is shown by still more remarkable reduc-
tions than those which we have been considering. Per-
sons of different degrees of relationship are sometimes
thrown together under a common title descriptive of the
majority, and all words of explanation, even those which
seem essential to the sense, are rigorously excluded, the
supplying of these chasms being left to the independent
knowledge of the reader. Hence several passages in the
genealogies of Chronicles have now become hopelessly
obscure. They may have been intelligible enough to con-
temporaries; but for those who have no extraneous sources
of information, the key to their explanation is wanting.

In other cases we are able to understand them, because
the information necessary to make them intelligible is
supplied from parallel passages of Scripture. Thus the
opening verses of Chronicles contain the following bald
list of names without a word of explanation, viz.: Adam,
Seth, Enosh; Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; Enoch, Methu-
selah, Lamech; Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

We are not told who these persons are, how they were
related to each other, or whether they were related. The
writer presumes that his readers have the book of Gene-
sis in their hands, and that the simple mention of these
names in their order will be sufficient to remind them
that the first ten trace the line of descent from father to

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 289

son from the first to the second great progenitor of man-
kind; and that the last three are brothers, although noth-
ing is said to indicate that their relationship is different
from the preceding.

Again the family of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, is spoken
of in the following terms in 1 Chron. i. 36: "The sons of
Eliphaz: Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz and
Timna, and Amalek."

Now, by turning to Genesis xxxvi. 11, 12, we shall see
that the first five are sons of Eliphaz, and the sixth his
concubine, who was the mother of the seventh. This is
so plainly written in Genesis that the author of the Chron-
icles, were he the most inveterate blunderer, could not
have mistaken it. But trusting to the knowledge of his
readers to supply the omission, he leaves out the state-
ment respecting Eliphaz's concubine, but at the same time
connects her name and that of her son with the family to
which they belong, and this though he was professedly
giving a statement of the sons of Eliphaz.

So, likewise, in the pedigree of Samuel (or Shemuel,
ver. 33, the difference in orthography is due to our trans-
lators, and is not in the original), which is given in 1
Chron. vi. in both an ascending and descending series.
Thus in verses 22-24: "The sons of Kohath; Amminadab
his son, Korah his son, Assir his son; Elkanah his son,
and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son; Tahath his
son," etc.

The extent to which the framer of this list has studied
comprehensiveness and conciseness will appear from the
fact, which no one would suspect unless informed from
other source, that while the general law which prevails
in it is that of descent from father to son, the third, fourth,
and fifth names represent brothers. This is shown by a
comparison of Ex. vi. 24, and the parallel genealogy, 1
Chron. vi. 36, 37, 50 that the true line of descent is the
following, viz.: —

VOL: XL VII. NO. 186. 8

290 Primeval Chronology. [April,

In ver. 22-24-Kohath In ver. 37-38-Kohath

Amminadab Izbar

Koran Korah

Assir, Elkanah, Ebiasaph Ebiasaph

Assir Assir

Tahath, etc. Tahath, etc.

The circumstance that the son of Kohath is called in
one list Amminadab, and in the other Izhar, is no real dis-
crepancy and can create no embarrassment, since it is no
unusual thing for the same person to have two names.
Witness Abram and Abraham; Jacob and Israel; Joseph
and Zaphenath-paneah, Gen. xli. 45, Hoshea, Jehoshua,
Num. xiii. 16 (or Joshua) and Jeshua, Neh. viii. 17, Gideon
and Jerubbaal, Judg. vi. 32, Solomon and Jedidiah, 2 Sam.
xii. 24, 25, Azariah and Uzziah, 2 Kings xv. I, 13, Daniel
and Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and Shad-
rach, Meshach, Abednego, Dan. i. 7; Saul and Paul,
Thomas and Didymus, Cephas and Peter, and in profane
history Cyaxares and Darius, Octavianus and Augustus,
Napoleon and Bonaparte, Ferretti and Pius IX.

The genealogy of Moses and Aaron is thus stated in the
sixth chapter of Exodus: ~

Ver. 16. "And these are the names of the sons of Levi,
according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath,
and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an
hundred and thirty and seven years."

17. "The sons of Gershon "

18. "And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and
Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath
were an hundred and thirty and three years."

19. "And the sons of Merari "

20. "And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sis-
ter to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the
years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty
and seven years."

21. "And the sons of Izhar "

22. "And the sons of Uzziel . . . ."

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 291

There is abundant proof that this genealogy has been
condensed, as we have already seen that so many others
have been, by the dropping of some of the less important
names.

This is afforded, in the first place, by parallel genealo-
gies of the same period; as that of Bezaleel (I Chron. ii.
18-20), which records seven generations from Jacob; and
that of Joshua (I Chron. vii. 23-27), which records eleven.
Now it is scarcely conceivable that there should be
eleven links in the line of descent from Jacob to Joshua,
and only four from Jacob to Moses.

A still more convincing proof is yielded by Num. iii.
19, 27, 28, from which it appears that the four sons of Ko-
hath severally gave rise to the families of the Amramites,
the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites; and
that the number of the male members of these families of a
month old and upward was 8,600 one year after the Ex-
odus. So that, if no abridgment has taken place in the
genealogy, the grandfather of Moses had, in the lifetime
of the latter, 8,600 descendants of the male sex alone,
2,750 of them being between the ages of thirty and fifty
(Num. iv. 36).

Another proof equally convincing is to be found in the
fact that Levi's son Kohath was born before the descent
into Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 11); and the abode of the children
of Israel in Egypt continued 430 years (Ex. xii. 40, 41).
Now as Moses was eighty years old at the Exodus (Ex.
vii. 7) he must have been born more, than 350 years after
Kohath, who consequently could not have been his own
grandfather.

This genealogy, whose abbreviated character is so clear-
ly established, is of special importance for the immediate
purpose of this paper, because it might appear, at first
sight, as though such an assumption was precluded in the
present instance, and as though the letter of Scripture
shut us up to the inevitable conclusion that there were

292 Primeval Chronology [April,

four links, and no more, from Jacob to Moses. The
names which are found without deviation in all the gene-
alogies are Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses (Ex. vi.
16-20; Num. iii. 17-19; xxvi. 57-59; I Chron. vi. 1-3,
16-18; xxiii. 6, 12, 13). Now unquestionably Levi was
Jacob's own son. So likewise Kohath was the son of
Levi (Gen. xlvi. 11) and born before the descent into
Egypt. Amram also was the immediate descendant of
Kohath. It does not seem possible, as Kurtz proposed,
to insert the missing links between them. For, in the
first place, according to Num. xxvi. 59, "The name of
Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom
her mother bare to Levi in Egypt," this Jochebed being
(Ex. vi. 20) Amram's aunt, or his father's sister. Now,
it is true, that" a daughter of Levi " might have the gen-
eral sense of a descendant of Levi, as the woman healed
by our Lord (Luke xiii. 16) is called "a daughter of
Abraham;" and her being born to Levi might simply
mean that she sprang from him (comp. Gen. xlvi. 25).

But these expressions must here be taken in a strict
sense, and Jochebed accordingly must have been Levi's
own daughter and the sister of Kohath, who must in con-
sequence have been Amram's own father. This appears
from a second consideration, viz., that Amram was (Num.
iii. 27) the father of one of the subdivisions of the Ko-
hathites, these subdivisions springing from Kohath's own
children and comprising together 8,600 male descendants.
Moses' father surely could not have been the ancestor of
one-fourth of this number in Moses' own days.

To avoid this difficulty Tiele and Keil assume that there
were two Amrams, one the son of Kohath, another the
father of Moses, who was a more remote descendant but
bore the same name with his ancestor. This relieves the
embarrassment created by the Amramites (Num. iii. 27)
but is still liable to that which arises from making Joche-
bed the mother of Moses. And further, the structure of

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 293

the genealogy in Ex. vi. is such as to make this hypothe-
sis unnatural and improbable. Verse 16 names the three
sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, and Merari; ver. 17-19,
the sons of each in their order; ver. 20-22, the children
of Kohath's sons; ver. 23, 24, contain descendants of the
next generation, and ver. 25 the generation next follow-
ing. Now, according to the view of Tiele and Keil, we
must either suppose that the Amram, Izhar, and Uzziel
of ver. 20-22 are all different from the Amram, Izhar, and
Uzziel of ver. 18, or else that Amram, though belonging
to a later generation than Izhar and Uzziel, is introduced
before them, which the regular structure of the genealogy
forbids; and besides, the sons of Izhar and the sons of
Uzziel, who are here named, were the contemporaries of
Moses and Aaron the sons of Amram (Num. xvi. 1;
Lev. x. 4).

This subject may be relieved from all perplexity, how-
ever, by observing that Amram and Jochebed were not
the immediate parents, but the ancestors of Aaron and
Moses. How many generations may have intervened,
we cannot tell. It is indeed said (Ex. vi. 20; Num. xxvi.
59), that Jochebed bare them to Amram. But in the
language of the genealogies this simply means that they
were descended from her and from Amram. Thus, in Gen.
xlvi. 18, after recording the sons of Zilpah, her grandsons,
and her great-grandsons, the writer adds, "These are the
sons of Zilpah and these she bare unto Jacob,
even sixteen souls." The same thing recurs in the case
of Bilhah (ver. 25): "She bare these unto Jacob; all the
souls were seven." (Comp. also ver. 15, 22.) No one
can pretend here that the author of this register did not
use the terms understandingly of descendants beyond the
first generation. In like manner, according to Matt. i.
11, Josias begat his grandson Jechonias, and ver. 8, Jo-
ram begat his great-great-grandson Ozias. And in Gen.
x. 15-18 Canaan, the grandson of Noah, is said to have

294 Primeval Chronology [April,

begotten several whole nations, the Jebusite, the Amor-
ite, the Girgasite, the Hivite, etc. (Comp. also Gen.
xxv. 23; Deut. iv. 25; 2 Kings xx. 18; Isa, li, 2.)
Nothing can be plainer, therefore, than that, in the usage
of the Bible, "to bear" and "to beget" are used in a
wide sense to indicate descent, without restriction to the
immediate offspring. 1

It is no serious objection to this view of the case that
in Lev. x.4 Uzziel, Amram's brother, is called "the uncle
of Aaron." The Hebrew word here rendered "uncle," though
often specifically applied to a definite degree of relation-
ship, has, both from etymology and usage, a much wider
sense. A great- great- grand-uncle is still an uncle, and
would properly be described by the term here used.
It may also be observed that in the actual history of the
birth of Moses his parents are not called Amram and
Jochebed. It is simply said (Ex. ii. I), "and there went
a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter
of Levi."

After these preliminary observations, which were origi-
nally drawn up for another purpose, I come to the more
immediate design of the present paper, by proceeding to
inquire, whether the genealogies of Gen. v. and xi. are
necessarily to be considered as complete, and embracing
all the links in the line of descent from Adam to Noah
and from Shem to Abraham. And upon this I remark ~

1. That the analogy of Scripture genealogies is decid-
edly against such a supposition. In numerous other in-
stances there is incontrovertible evidence of more or less
abridgment. This may even be the case where various

1 In Ruth iv, 17 Ruth's child is called "a son born to Naomi," who was
Ruth's mother-in-law and not even an ancestor of the child in the strict sense.
Zerubbahel is called familiarly the son of Shealtiel (Ezr, iii 2; Hag.i. 1),
and is so stated to be in the genealogies of both Matt. i. 12 and Luke iii.
27, though in reality he was his nephew (1 Chron. iii. 17-19). That descent
as reckoned in genealogies is not always that of actual parentage appears
from the comparison of the ancestry of our Lord as given by Matthew and
by Luke.

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 295

circumstances combine to produce a different impression
at the outset. Nevertheless, we have seen that this first
impression, may be dissipated by a more careful examina-
tion and a comparison of collateral data. The result of
our investigations thus far is sufficient to show that it is
precarious to assume that any biblical genealogy is de-
signed to be strictly continuous, unless it can be subjected
to some external tests which prove it to be so. And it is
to be observed that the Scriptures furnish no collateral
information whatever respecting the period covered by
the genealogies now in question. The creation, the
Flood, the call of Abraham, are great facts, which stand
out distinctly in primeval sacred history. A few incidents
respecting our first parents and their sons Cain and Abel
are recorded. Then there is an almost total blank until
the Flood, with nothing whatever to fill the gap, and
nothing to suggest the length of time intervening but what
is found in the genealogy stretching between these two
points. And the case is substantially the same from the
Flood to Abraham. So far as the biblical records go, we
are left not only without adequate data, but without any
data whatever, which can be brought into comparison
with these genealogies for the sake of testing their con-
tinuity and completeness.

If, therefore, any really trustworthy data can be gath-
ered from any source whatever, from any realm of scien-
tific or antiquarian research, which can be brought into
comparison with these genealogies for the sake of deter-
mining the question, whether they have noted every link
in the chain of descent, or whether, as in other manifest
instances, links have been omitted, such data should be
welcomed and the comparison fearlessly made. Science
would simply perform the office, in this instance, which
information gathered from other parts of Scripture is un-
hesitatingly allowed to do in regard to those genealogies
previously examined.

296 Primeval Chronology. [April,

And it may be worth noting here that a single particu-
lar in which a comparison may be instituted between the
primeval history of man and Gen. v., suggests especial
caution before affirming the absolute completeness of the
latter. The letter of the genealogical record (v. 3) if we
were dependent on it alone, might naturally lead us to
infer that Seth was Adam's first child. But we know
from chapter iv. that he had already had two sons, Cain
and Abel, and from iv. 17 that he must have had a daugh-
ter, and from iv. 14 that he had probably had several sons
and daughters, whose families had swollen to a considera-
ble number before Adam's one hundred and thirtieth
year, in which Seth was born. Yet of all this the geneal-
ogy gives us no inkling.

2. Is there not, however, a peculiarity in the construc-
tion of these genealogies which forbids our applying to
them an inference drawn from others not so constructed?
The fact that each member of the series is said to have
begotten the one next succeeding, is, in the light of the
wide use of this term which we have discovered in other
cases, no evidence of itself that links have not been omit-
ted. But do not the chronological statements introduced
into these genealogies oblige us to regard them as neces-
sarily continuous? Why should the author be so partic-
ular to state, in every case, with unfailing regularity, the
age of each patriarch at the birth of his son, unless it
was his design thus to construct a chronology of this
entire period, and to afford his readers the necessary ele-
ments for a computation of the interval from the creation
to the deluge and from the deluge to Abraham? And if
this was his design, he must of course have aimed to make
his list complete. The omission of even a single name
would create an error.

But are we really justified in supposing that the author
of these genealogies entertained such a purpose? It is a
noticeable fact that he never puts them to such a use him-

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 297

self. He nowhere sums these numbers, nor suggests
their summation. No chronological statement is deduced
from these genealogies, either by him or by any inspired
writer. There is no computation anywhere in Scripture
of the time that elapsed from the creation or from the
deluge, as there is from the descent into Egypt to the
Exodus (Ex. xii. 40), or from the Exodus to the building
of the temple (I Kings vi. 1). And if the numbers in these
genealogies are for the sake of constructing a chronology,
why are numbers introduced which have no possible rela-
tion to such a purpose? Why are we told how long each
patriarch lived after the birth of his son, and what was
the entire length of his life? These numbers are given
with the same regularity as the age of each at the birth
of his son; and they are of no use in making up a
chronology of the period. They merely afford us a con-
spectus of individual lives. And for this reason doubtless
they are recorded. They exhibit in these selected exam-
ples the original term of human life. They show what it
was in the ages before the Flood. They show how it was
afterwards individually narrowed down. But in order to
this it was not necessary that every individual should be
named in the line from Adam to Noah and from Noah to
Abraham, nor anything approaching it. A series of spec-
imen lives, with the appropriate numbers attached, was
all that was required. And, so far as appears, this is all
that has been furnished us. And if this be the case, the
notion of basing a chronological computation upon these
genealogies is a fundamental mistake. It is putting them
to a purpose that they were not designed to subserve, and
to which from the method of their construction they are
not adapted. When it is said, for example, that "Enosh
lived ninety years and begat Kenan," the well-established
usage of the word "begat" makes this statement equally
true and equally accordant with analogy, whether Kenan
was an immediate or a remote descendant of Enosh; wheth-

298 Primeval Chronology. [April,

er Kenan was himself born, when Enosh was ninety years
of age or one was born from whom Kenan sprang. These
genealogies may yield us the minimum length of time
that it is possible to accept for the period that they cover;
but they can make no account of the duration represented
by the names that have been dropped from the register,
as needless for the author's particular purpose.

3. The abode of the children of Israel in Egypt affords
for our present purpose the best Scripture parallel to the
periods now under consideration. The greater part of
this term of 430 years is left blank in the sacred history.
A few incidents are mentioned at the beginning connected
with the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt and
their settlement there. And at its close mention is made
of some incidents in the life of Moses and the events lead-
ing to the Exodus. But with these exceptions no account
is given of this long period. The interval is only bridged
by a genealogy extending from Levi to Moses and Aaron
and their contemporaries among their immediate relatives
(Ex. vi. 16-26). This genealogy records the length of
each man's life in the principal line of descent, viz., Levi
(ver. 16), Kohath (ver. 18), Amram (ver. 20). The corre-
spondence in the points just indicated with the genealogies
of Gen. v. and xi., and the periods which they cover, is
certainly remarkable. And as they proceeded from the
same pen, we may fairly infer from the similarity of con-
struction a similarity of design. Now it has been shown
already that the genealogy from Levi to Moses cannot
have recorded all the links in that line of descent, and
that it could not, therefore, have been intended to be used
as a basis of chronological computation. This is rendered
absolutely certain by the explicit statement in Ex. xii. 40.
It further appears from the fact that the numbers given
in this genealogy exhibit the longevity of the patriarchs
named, but cannot be so concatenated as to sum up the
entire period; thus suggesting the inference that the

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 299

numbers in the other genealogies, with which we are now
concerned, were given with a like design, and not with
the view of enabling the reader to construct the chronology.

4. In so far as a valid argument can be drawn from
the civilization of Egypt, its monuments and records, to
show that the interval between the deluge and the call of
Abraham must have been greater than that yielded by
the genealogy in Gen. xi., the argument is equally valid
against the assumption that this genealogy was intended
to supply the elements for a chronological computation.

For altogether apart from his inspiration Moses could not
have made a mistake here. He was brought up at the
court of Pharaoh, and was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians, of which his legislation and the marvellous
table of the affinities of nations in Gen. x., at once the ad-
miration and the despair of ethnologists, furnish independ-
ent proof. He lived in the glorious period of the great
Egyptian monarchy. Its monuments were then in their
freshness and completeness. None of the irreparable
damage, which time and ruthless barbarism have since
wrought, had been suffered then. The fragmentary rec-
ords, which scholars are now laboriously struggling to
unravel and combine, with their numerous gaps and
hopeless obscurities, were then in their integrity and well
understood. Egypt's claim to a hoary antiquity was far
better known to Moses, and he was in a position to gain a
far more intelligent comprehension of it than is possible
at present; for exuberant materials were ready at his
hand, of which only a scanty and disordered remnant now
survives. If, then, Egyptian antiquity contradicts the
current chronology, it simply shows that this chronology
is based upon an unfounded assumption. It rests upon a
fundamentally mistaken interpretation of the ante-Abra-
hamic genealogy, and assigns a meaning to it which Moses
could never have intended that it should have.

As is well known, the texts of the Septuagint and of the

300 Primeval Chronology. [April,

Samaritan Pentateuch vary systematically from the He-
brew in both the genealogies of Gen. v. and xi. According
to the chronologies based on these texts respectively,
the interval between the Flood and the birth of Abraham
was 292 (Hebrew), 942 (Samaritan), or 1172 years (Septua-
gint). Some have been disposed in this state of the case
to adopt the chronology drawn from the Septuagint, as
affording here the needed relief. But the superior accu-
racy of the Hebrew text in this instance, as well as gener-
ally elsewhere, can be incontrovertibly established. This
resource, then, is a broken reed. It might, however, be
plausibly imagined, and has in fact been maintained, that
these changes were made by the Septuagint translators
or others for the sake of accommodating the Mosaic narra-
tive to the imperative demands of the accepted Egyptian
antiquity. But if this be so, it is only a further confirma-
tion of the argument already urged that the ante-Abra-
hamic genealogy cannot have been intended by Moses as
a basis of chronological computation. He knew as much
of the age of Egypt as the Septuagint translators or any
in their day. And if so brief a term as this genealogy
yields, was inadmissible in their judgment, and they felt
constrained to enlarge it by the addition of nearly nine
centuries is it not clear that Moses never could have in-
tended that the genealogy should be so interpreted?

Furthermore, it seems to me worthy of consideration
whether the original intent with which these textual
changes were made, was after all a chronological one.
The principle by which they are obviously and uniformly
governed, is rather suggestive of a disposition to make
a more symmetrical division of individual lives than to
protract the entire period. The effect of these changes
upon the chronology may have been altogether an after-
thought.

Thus in the Hebrew text of Gen. v. the ages of differ-
ent patriarchs at the birth of the son named are quite ir-

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 301

regular, and vary from sixty-five to one hundred and
eighty-seven. But the versions seek to bring them into
closer conformity, and to introduce something like a reg-
ular gradation. The Septuagint proceeds on the assump-
tion that patriarchs of such enormous longevity should be
nearly two centuries old at the birth of their son. Ac-
cordingly, when, in the Hebrew, they fall much below
this standard, one hundred years are added to the num-
ber preceding the birth of the son and the same amount
deducted from the number following his birth; the total
length of each life is thus preserved without change, the
proportion of its different parts alone being altered. The
Samaritan, on the other hand, assumes a gradual diminu-
tion in the ages of successive patriarchs prior to the birth
of their son, none rising to a century after the first two.
When, therefore, the number in the Hebrew text exceeds
one hundred, one hundred is deducted and the same
amount added to the years after the son was born. In
the case of Lamech the reduction is greater still, in order
to effect the necessary diminution. Accordingly the
years assigned to the several antediluvian patriarchs be-
fore the birth of their son in these several texts is as fol-
lows : ~

Hebrew.

Septuagint.

Samaritan

Adam

130

230

230

Seth

105

205

105

Enosh

90

190

90

Kenan

70

170

70

Mahalalel

65

165

65

Jared

162

162

62

Enoch

65

165
| 167 1

65

Methuselah

187

187

67

Lamech

182

188

53

Noah

600

600

600

A simple glance at these numbers is sufficient to show
that the Hebrew is the original, from which the others

1 The number varies in different manuscripts.

302 Primeval Chronology. [April,

diverge on the one side or the other, according to the
principle which they have severally adopted. It likewise
creates a strong presumption that the object contem-
plated in these changes was to make the lives more sym-
metrical, rather than to effect an alteration in the chronol-
ogy.

5. The structure of the genealogies in Gen. v. and xi.
also favors the belief that they do not register all the
names in these respective lines of descent. Their regu-
larity seems to indicate intentional arrangement. Each
genealogy includes ten names, Noah being the tenth from
Adam, and Terah the tenth from Noah. And each ends
with a father having three sons, as is likewise the case
with the Cainite genealogy (iv. 17-22). The Sethite gene-
alogy (chap, v.) culminates in its seventh member, Enoch,
who "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."
The Cainite genealogy also culminates in its seventh
member, Lamech, with his polygamy, bloody revenge, and
boastful arrogance. The genealogy descending from
Shem divides evenly at its fifth member, Peleg; and "in
his days was the earth divided." Now as the adjustment
of the genealogy in Matt. i. into three periods of fourteen
generations each is brought about by dropping the requi-
site number of names, it seems in the highest degree prob-
able that the symmetry of these primitive genealogies is
artificial rather than natural. It is much more likely that
this definite number of names fitting into a regular
scheme has been selected as sufficiently representing the
periods to which they belong, than that all these striking
numerical coincidences should have happened to occur in
these successive instances.

It may further be added that if the genealogy in chap,
xi. is complete, Peleg, who marks the entrance of a new
period, died while all his ancestors from Noah onward
were still living. Indeed Shem, Arphaxad, Selah, and
Eber must all have outlived not only Peleg, but all the

1890.] Primeval Chronology. 303

generations following as far as and including Terah. The
whole impression of the narrative in Abraham's days is
that the Flood was an event long since past, and that the
actors in it had passed away ages before. And yet if a
chronology is to be constructed out of this genealogy,
Noah was for fifty-eight years the contemporary of Abra-
ham, and Shem actually survived him thirty-five years,
provided xi. 26 is to be taken in its natural sense, that
Abraham was born in Terah's seventieth year. This con-
clusion is well-nigh incredible. The calculation which
leads to such a result, must proceed upon a wrong as-
sumption.

On these various grounds we conclude that the Scrip-
tures furnish no data for a chronological computation
prior to the life of Abraham; and that the Mosaic records
do not fix and were not intended to fix the precise date
either of the Flood or of the creation of the world.

Please report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at: thildebrandt@gordon.edu